207 
follow their example, and prefer the sweet lotos—doubly grateful, as 
was natural, to sailors long afloat—and residence among a mild and 
happy people, like a prudent captain, Ulysses leaves the seductive 
coast. 
Such is the simple narrative of Homer, neither improbable nor 
inconsistent with our notions of what under the circumstances 
would be likely to occur. From this, however, future poets, 
Thomson and our own poet-laureate among the rest, have elabor- 
ated descriptions of a fairy-like land, 
“In which it seemed always afternoon,” 
and where 
‘Branches they bore of that enchanted stem, 
Laden with fruit and flower, whereof they gave 
To each, but whoso did receive of them, 
And taste, to-him the gushing of the wave 
j Far, far, away did seem to mourn and rave 
On alien shores ; and if his fellow spake, 
His voice was thin, as voices from the grave ; 
And deep asleep he seemed, yet all awake, 
3 And music in his ears his beating heart did make.” 
ae * + cee 2 ieee 
tr 
_ And so forth. Most beautiful poetry, but not one word of which, 
_ as far as I see, is to be found in Homer, but like the German’s 
camel, has been elaborated by poets from the depths of their inner 
consciousness. And pray let this be said with all due deference 
__and respect to the poet’s testy and amusing, but @ propos warning :— 
A ‘Vex not thou the poet’s mind 
. With thy shallow wit : 
; Vex not thou the poet’s mind, 
Z For thou canst not fathom it.” 
& , 
‘, After an interval of nearly a thousand years, we find another 
, poet, Virgil, in close imitation of Homer, conducting his hero, 
#Eneas, in a voyage almost the exact counterpart of that of Ulysses. 
_ Afneas visits the Syrtes, the region of the Lotophagi, but finds 
_ there nothing but storm and tempest and quicksand. Instead of 
2 Tennyson’s “melancholy, mild-eyed Lotos-eaters,” he is met by a 
_ Tace rich and prosperous, but inhospitable to strangers, and his 
